Well, the new bulbs are only $265, really cheap by the going standards. But not cheap for <500 hours...
Still don't know if we'll be charged for the bulb; the good folks at PlusCorp Fed Ex'd the bulb out with instructions to return the old one for examination. They said if we did have to pay anything we'd settle up later, which works for me. About has to be defective, no bulb could crap out that fast, providing it isn't abused. And we definately treated it well. At any rate, they turned that bulb around pretty fast; had X-mas in there or we'd have had it in a day or two.
Just installing it now...